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The Stetson men's basketball team (5-10, 2-2) defeated
Jacksonville (7-10, 2-2) by a score of 81-72 on Monday night to even its Atlantic
Sun Conference record to 2-2. Junior
Chris Perez and senior Adam Pegg combined for 45 points to lead the Hatters in
the victory.

"It's nice to play well enough in the first 30 minutes that
you give yourself a cushion, and you can be not your best for the last 10 and still
win a game by nine points," Stetson head coach Casey Alexander said after the
win. "[I'm] pleased with the win,
obviously. [It's] great to bounce back
after a tough one Saturday."

Stetson opened the game with a pair of layups from junior
Hunter Miller and Perez, eventually taking an early 11-5 lead over the Dolphins
just over five minutes into the contest.
Jacksonville scored the next four points to get within two, at 11-9, but
six straight points that included a pair of jump hooks from Pegg extended the
Hatters' lead to eight, at 19-11, with 10:54 to play in the period.

Seven straight from the Dolphins, which concluded with five
points from Javon Dawson, gave Jacksonville its first tie of the game since the
opening tip, evening the score at 23-23 with 7:40 to play in the half.

After a conventional three-point play by Miller stopped the
bleeding, JU used a 6-2 run to take its first and only lead of the game, at
29-28. The Hatters countered with a 10-2
stretch to end the frame to take a 42-34 advantage into the break. Perez scored five points and freshman Leke
Solanke came up with two blocks during the run.

"I'm so proud of Chris, not necessarily because he continues
to give us great production, but because he's doing it within the framework of
what we want to do," Alexander said. "He's finding his way to do what he does
best within the framework of how we want to play, and that's what good players
do. And that's how good teams are built."

The Hatters scored six out of the first eight points of the
second half to extend their lead to 13 points, as senior Liam McInerney's fall
away jumper put Stetson up 49-36 less than three and a half minutes into the
period.

Less than five minutes later Stetson used an 8-2 run,
bookended by three-pointers from juniors Willie Green and Aaron Graham, to take
its largest lead of the game at 61-45 with 10:49 to play.

The advantage wasn't as comfortable as the Hatters would
have liked, as Jacksonville used its pressure defense to force a few Stetson
turnovers, and come within six points. Free throws by Pegg and Perez put the game
away though, as Stetson came away with the 81-72 victory.

"It gave us a ton of problems at the end," Alexander said of
Jacksonville's pressure. "There was
nothing different about what they were doing. We just lost our edge a little
bit. Once you let your guard down at all against a team like that, or become a
little more casual, or a little more timid, or a little bit more unsure, then
the result is some real scary play."

Stetson finished with 12 turnovers, eight of which came in
the second half, but a season high of 24 assists gave the Hatters a healthy
2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. It
marked the fourth time this season of recording 20 or more helpers in a game
for the team that leads the conference in the category.

Perez totaled a season-high 23 points, one off of his career
best, to lead the Hatters in the victory.
Pegg added 22 points, reaching double figures for the 10th
straight contest, on 10-of-19 shooting from the floor. He added seven rebounds in the win.

"Nineteen shots for Adam is the best part of the night,"
Alexander said of his center's performance. "That means he wants the ball, and
that means we're getting it to him, and that's the first part of our offense
every time we line up to play a game. Adam demanded the ball, and delivered."

Green gave Stetson three players in double figures, scoring
11 points. The junior forward made his
mark on the boards though, grabbing a career best of 11 to record the second
double-double of his career. More importantly,
six of them came on the offensive side of the ball, which was also a career
high.

"[Willie] gave us a huge lift," Alexander said of Green's
rebounding. "Our offense is a hard one
to really be a great offensive rebounder, because if you're playing the
one-through-four spot then you're outside the three-point line most of the time
when the shot goes up, so it takes a real effort. Everyone who watched the game saw a guy who
wanted to be involved."

Stetson, now 5-10 on the season and even at 2-2 in
conference play, will next head back on the road to play at ETSU on Thursday,
Jan. 10. The Hatters will then take on
USC Upstate in Spartanburg, S.C. on Saturday, Jan. 12 before returning home the
next weekend.